A vehicle of a type such as to be run by using an electric motor as a driving source, such as an electric vehicle or a hybrid vehicle, is mounted with a battery pack that stores batteries for running the vehicle. In the battery pack, when the batteries are charged or discharged, heat is generated from cells constituting each of the batteries. To prevent the cell performance from being deteriorated by heat, the heat generated by the cooling of batteries must be removed.
As one means for cooling the batteries, there has conventionally been available a cooling device in which the air in a vehicle compartment is taken in via an air intake duct, and the taken-in air is supplied to the batteries as cooling air by using an air blowing fan or the like.
In some of the conventional vehicular battery cooling devices, an air intake duct extending from a battery pack disposed on a rear floor panel at the rear of a rear seat to one side in the vehicle width direction is installed in a side wall of a vehicle body located at the side of a backrest part of the rear seat, the opening of the air intake duct is formed in an upper portion of a side garnish at the side of the backrest part of the rear seat, and the air in the vehicle compartment is taken into the air intake duct through this opening and is supplied to the batteries as cooling air by using an air blowing fan or the like (JP 4114478 B).
Also, in some of the conventional vehicular battery cooling devices, an air intake duct extending from a battery pack disposed on a rear floor panel at the rear of a rear seat to the vehicle front direction is installed between the cushion part of the rear seat and the rear floor panel, an opening is formed at the front end of the air intake duct extended to the vehicle front direction, and the air in the vehicle compartment is taken into the air intake duct through this opening and is supplied to the batteries as cooling air by using an air blowing fan or the like (JP 2007-294290 A).